Now that the "Emergency" Military Bill is Dead, Can They Please Dispense With the Nonsense and Pass a Funding Bill?

Congress and President Bush both got their two cents in when Congress passed a doomed "emergency" spending bill on the military and their pork projects, and President Bush vetoed it.

Now that the hubris from Round 1 is done, will they please get off their lazy fat asses and pass the original bill as it was written, and without non-military not-emergency earmarks that Pelosi & company used to bribe members of their own party?

The House in particular had better get a move on; their job approval ratings are virtually the same as President Bush's, and every House seat is in play in 2008. Thirty-three Class II U.S. Senate seats are also up for grabs. If they don't do their jobs, they'll be joining President Bush in looking at new career options after 2008.

The military has already begun to make cuts in their equipment maintenance and repair apparatus; this is impacting how quickly used and battle-damaged equipment makes it back onto the battlefield. The troops are relying on this hardware to complete their missions and to keep them alive.

Thousands of the new family of mine & IED-resistant armored vehicles (MRAP) have not been shipped over yet either; many more are halted on the production lines because the funding is part of this hot-potato spending bill.

A mine-resistant Cougar vehicle being tested.

Congress and the President must make haste and table everything else for another time. They shouldn't allow the military to run out of money and not provide the troops with the tools that they need.

Get it done, NOW.